RSS functional components

The RSS function is made up of the following components:

• Feed reader
• Feed sources input
• Feed aggregator
• Feed results output

These simple components combine to provide a powerful RSS feed aggregator function that can be integrated with other applications in a variety of ways.

Overview of RSS functional components: 

• The feed reader component does the bulk of the job and focuses on obtaining feeds provided by a given feed source. A feed source is nothing but a URL at which a particular content provider periodically syndicates the content for a given information category. For instance, a feed source might point to a URL at which the New York Times publishes all its latest news blurbs about the business category/channel using the XML-based RSS format.
• The feed aggregator component takes several user-specified feed sources as input and then it invokes the feed reader component to get all feed items from each customized feed source.
• The feed sources input component defines and reads the details about the user-specified feed sources. The feed source details can be provided in the form of a string stored in system memory, via an input file, or as records in a database.
• The feed results output component stores the aggregated RSS feed item results received from a particular feed source. It can store the results as a string in system memory, into a file, or into database tables.

Because the Web is all about information, RSS will continue to play a central role in determining how that information is syndicated and disseminated in powerful and useful ways.